Ask Your Producer: Spring 2016

Utianima

Rasui said:

The question nobody thought to ask: How are you?

Also: I keep trying to step into programming, but can't seem to keep focused beyond the raw fundamentals I learned in a python class. Do you have any suggestions?

Finally: Non-factioned support/healer class, please?

To respond to your programming question, I am having great success learning JavaScript (and the MEAN stack specifically) over at FreeCodeCamp.com.

Asmodron

A general question I have been wondering about: Since the Erisian Pyramid is now gone, what became of the chaos forest accessible within it? Does the area still exist out there, floating around, or was it nixed as well?

It used to be a nice little spot for karma and carefree low hunting (harvesting too I believe)

Klendathu

At what distance from the mainland over the ocean does PtV cease to function?

What do you think of the idea of being able to take off / land from a ship at sea with a Transoceanic Orb? (aircraft dragon carriers!)

Tecton

Rasui said:

The question nobody thought to ask: How are you?

Also: I keep trying to step into programming, but can't seem to keep focused beyond the raw fundamentals I learned in a python class. Do you have any suggestions?

Finally: Non-factioned support/healer class, please?

1) Doing great! Ready for day #2 of this thread!
2) I have a hard time learning new programming languages when I don't have a clear goal of what I'm trying to do, I usually like to dig in and learn by doing on an actual project. Not sure if that's the case for everyone, but going through Hello World and iterating through an array for the millionth time just makes my eyes glaze over.
3) Not with this upcoming class, but perhaps when we do another class in the future!

Tecton

Telendrieth said:

Heading to bed, but I'll be checking in when I wake up. One of my larger concerns about the game is that I've seemingly hit a point where I'm mostly logging on for people, and not the game itself. While I prefer this game to other "theme park" styled mmos, I wonder just how much Achaea could benefit from a few tastes of such.

So my question would have to be, what are the thoughts behind adding in factions and daily style quests, or even rewarding things to do outside of hunting/pvp. Aetolia had a few interesting takes on this, with fishing in particular. You could log on and complete a few quests each day to raise rep with the gulleyes fishing faction. At certain ranks, you were able to have access to special shop wares that you had to earn. They could be specific lures, or clothing. While it may not need to be quite like this, I just hope to see more grow into the game. It's hard to feel like you're doing something fulfilling or productive just extracting all day, and not many people need forging.

(I adore Achaea, it's a game I grew up playing with highschool friends, and continue to play even into my nursing career. Part of me just wishes I could help shape the game I love into more than a fancy chatroom for some people, myself included.)

We've pondered it from time to time, it's just a balance of fun vs. filler. I could definitely see more influencing happening over the various factions of the game, but I'm not sure we'd put in a system where you log in every day, do the same 4 quests, then once you've reached a certain milestone, never do them again.

Tecton

Trey said:

How likely is it that a level 99 goal that isn't dragon be available in the future for those of us who don't like the aesthetics of dragons? I mean, even if it were something simple like reskinned abilities with the same mechanics I'd love it. I had started writing up a proposal that I abandoned, like instead of gust, a Wraith might just use a powerful backhanded blow to knock someone to the ground, and use whatever weapon they had in their other hand as a placeholder for "claws". Here's an excerpt that involved keeping your race and description, just adding a line at the end like a favour. - ALTERNATE END GOALS

Mhaldor - Wraithkin

Tears of black pitch well in his/her eyes, drawing a slow trail down his/her face.

Targossas - Archangel

Glorious wings of white-hot flame erupt from his/her shoulders, splaying majestically to either side.

Ashtan - Malformed

Random mutations. Always includes two tentacles somewhere.

Hashan - Shadetouched

A pallid grey color tinting their features/clothing, as if being viewed through shadows.

Eleusis (+ Eleusian houses if there are still members outcitizened) - Wildkin

Cyrene - Golem (I honestly couldn't think of anything better, Cyrene isn't really thematic)



I realize that it's a rough, stupid idea, I just think it'd be neat to have options that don't grossly change your appearance. Trey is too vain to give his looks up!

No immediate plans to offer this, but our plates are really full at the moment. 

Tecton

Kayeil said:

1.) Out of all the things you've worked on in Achaea, what are some of the things you're most proud of?

2.) Do you and Makarios ever get to duel to test things out? And if so, do you do so with other behind the scenes workers and volunteers? I'm curious how awesome some of you are or would be at combat if you all joined in on the fun with raiding and duels (although many of us are aware of how good Makarios is).

1) Hrrm, tough one! Probably most proud of the results and impact we see in player's lives from running massive world events like Bal'met and Eternal Night.

2) Sadly, not very often. This is mainly due to time constraints, but the ACC do an awesome job of testing various combat changes and additions.

Tecton

Nataliia said:

Is it possible to be able to drop mini pets and leave them where you drop them (without requiring stables), instead of having them reset? Then, if you want them, have a command that can recall loyals or something to have them in your inventory? They're fun to collect, but a pain to hold all the time.

Is it possible to add in a "recall artefacts" option added in the event that you loaned them out and you want them back, or the person you loaned them to logs out, or whatever else to avoid the having to wait? 

1) We've pondered it in the past, but it'd just lead to a huge amount of clutter if they're left in public places. Could you imagine going into Centre Crossing in Cyrene and seeing 850 minipets?

2) Yep, we've got most of the infrastructure in place to allow this on most artefacts. After some more polish, we'll get this released.

Tecton

Florentino said:

Any near-term (aka 2016) plans for world-scale group combat RP events like the Reckoning?

There will definitely be some of that this year *taps nose*

Tecton

Kresslack said:

@Tecton, when it comes to customisations, it's can't be created without a base item, and even customizing it, it still has to be that base item (i.e. a hat has to stay a hat) in most cases. 

Why is that, and is there any room for a system where people can get truly custom, original items if they're willing to pay for them?

Consistency is one of the big ones! If you made a hat into a turban for example, the item wouldn't be able to be referenced as a turban, it'd only be able to be interacted with as a hat. So while this isn't a massive problem for you, should the item be dropped somewhere, people would be PUSH TURBAN, GET TURBAN and nothing would work.

We've made new items for people in the past, but they still need to meet all of our strict criteria for additions to the game. We're not going to add a chainsaw, just because someone asks/is willing to pay for it!

Tecton

Achilles said:

When is the next Ironcon?

Not sure! Hopefully next year!

Tecton

Asmodron said:

A general question I have been wondering about: Since the Erisian Pyramid is now gone, what became of the chaos forest accessible within it? Does the area still exist out there, floating around, or was it nixed as well?

It used to be a nice little spot for karma and carefree low hunting (harvesting too I believe)

Did you -see- what happened to that pyramid? There's not too much left after the ol' Marvinogian used it as a playground 

Tecton

Klendathu said:

At what distance from the mainland over the ocean does PtV cease to function?

What do you think of the idea of being able to take off / land from a ship at sea with a Transoceanic Orb? (aircraft dragon carriers!)

1) Varies depending on location.
2) If there's a good chance of swamping and sinking the ship, I'm all for it!

Jonathin

Tecton said:

Rasui said:

2) I have a hard time learning new programming languages when I don't have a clear goal of what I'm trying to do, I usually like to dig in and learn by doing on an actual project. Not sure if that's the case for everyone, but going through Hello World and iterating through an array for the millionth time just makes my eyes glaze over.

This, this, a million times this.

When I first started learning Lua, I think my first actual script was a simple runelore or tattoos script. I wrote as much as I could by myself and then came to the forums for help. I repeated that process over and over and eventually the help I required to do things lessened.

Cooper

Are sidhe and unsidhe supposed to drop dragon talisman pieces?

Tecton

Cooper said:

Are sidhe and unsidhe supposed to drop dragon talisman pieces?

I've just cleaned this up, so drop rates should be more consistent starting in the next few minutes.

Tael

Jonathin said:

Tecton said:

Rasui said:

2) I have a hard time learning new programming languages when I don't have a clear goal of what I'm trying to do, I usually like to dig in and learn by doing on an actual project. Not sure if that's the case for everyone, but going through Hello World and iterating through an array for the millionth time just makes my eyes glaze over.

This, this, a million times this.

When I first started learning Lua, I think my first actual script was a simple runelore or tattoos script. I wrote as much as I could by myself and then came to the forums for help. I repeated that process over and over and eventually the help I required to do things lessened.

Yeah, thankfully Achaea is basically a neverending supply of relatively small string-processing problems. There are seriously few better environments for learning a programming language. Achaea is probably the best Intro to Programming class on the planet.

And now that the main client is written in JavaScript, you can learn what is probably the most popular language in the world rather than learning an embedded language like Lua.

Hell, nothing's really stopping you from writing an Achaea client/scripts in pretty much any language. Just about everything has some kind of websocket implementation at this point.

Natliya

When will the mythos of Achaea become a thing? I'd really like to see an insert in The Compiled List of Mythological Deities between Roman gods & goddesses, and Greek gods & goddesses... 
Unless, of course, you see yourself as more of a Ymir.

(Seriously, though, unless I'm missing something, there's no real database-style list of all the divines and their respective fluff surrounding. Someplace I can go and just binge on general Achaean divinities and stories about them. Unlike most mythos, all the stories about divines feel like they're tied in almost as integral as other adventurers or denizens - they don't go off on their own and have their own adventures. Correct/link me if I'm wrong, please.)

Tecton

Natliya said:

When will the mythos of Achaea become a thing? I'd really like to see an insert in The Compiled List of Mythological Deities between Roman gods & goddesses, and Greek gods & goddesses... 
Unless, of course, you see yourself as more of a Ymir.

(Seriously, though, unless I'm missing something, there's no real database-style list of all the divines and their respective fluff surrounding. Someplace I can go and just binge on general Achaean divinities and stories about them. Unlike most mythos, all the stories about divines feel like they're tied in almost as integral as other adventurers or denizens - they don't go off on their own and have their own adventures. Correct/link me if I'm wrong, please.)

A published compendium would be awesome! As for more lore and backstory,  http://wiki.achaea.com might be a good start, but large swaths of god-specific lore is usually contained within the records of their respective Divine orders.

Kayeil

Tecton said:

Kayeil said:

1.) Out of all the things you've worked on in Achaea, what are some of the things you're most proud of?

2.) Do you and Makarios ever get to duel to test things out? And if so, do you do so with other behind the scenes workers and volunteers? I'm curious how awesome some of you are or would be at combat if you all joined in on the fun with raiding and duels (although many of us are aware of how good Makarios is).

1) Hrrm, tough one! Probably most proud of the results and impact we see in player's lives from running massive world events like Bal'met and Eternal Night.

2) Sadly, not very often. This is mainly due to time constraints, but the ACC do an awesome job of testing various combat changes and additions.

Would you ever consider providing us with a log of you dueling it out with Makarios? 

Will future events give more information on the lore of other races? The Sireni high clan has an interesting lore written about the Siren race, but I think I was told the Garden didn't write it or come up with it, would be interesting to have it approved or have the Garden eventually reveal the history of them and some other races we don't know much about it.

Tecton

Kayeil said:

Tecton said:

Kayeil said:

1.) Out of all the things you've worked on in Achaea, what are some of the things you're most proud of?

2.) Do you and Makarios ever get to duel to test things out? And if so, do you do so with other behind the scenes workers and volunteers? I'm curious how awesome some of you are or would be at combat if you all joined in on the fun with raiding and duels (although many of us are aware of how good Makarios is).

1) Hrrm, tough one! Probably most proud of the results and impact we see in player's lives from running massive world events like Bal'met and Eternal Night.

2) Sadly, not very often. This is mainly due to time constraints, but the ACC do an awesome job of testing various combat changes and additions.

Would you ever consider providing us with a log of you dueling it out with Makarios? 

Will future events give more information on the lore of other races? The Sireni high clan has an interesting lore written about the Siren race, but I think I was told the Garden didn't write it or come up with it, would be interesting to have it approved or have the Garden eventually reveal the history of them and some other races we don't know much about it.

1) They're not very interesting, lots of stop and start!
2) That's the plan, yes, would love to have really deep backstories for all of the races! In situations where players have come up with backstories in racial clans, we definitely look those over and may incorporate elements of them if they fit!

Kayeil

You sir, (and the rest of the Achaea team), are awesome.

Khaibit

Will you please do something to sort out the balance between alchemical extracting and harvesting? With alchemical primes, with the artifact and trait, the highest I can get is 5 of a prime. With harvesting I can get 15, 20, 25, depending on when it was last harvested and I only have the artifact for that not the trait. 
And then with harvesting, that's it, you're done. But with alchemy you have to then go stand in a single room for a long time turning some of those primes into metals and then combine those primes and metals to make a cure. 
It's time consuming, it takes far longer to make minerals than it does to harvest. 

The excuse I hear most is 'well, you only have to go to one place to get primes' but that's not really a bonus. Especially when you hit that place just after another alchemist and can only get 1 prime.

Also, can we make more than 2 metals out of a prime? It's just.. so time consuming to make fricking minerals. I didn't realise how vastly different it was till I had both.. and.. just.. ugh. 

And after all that.. people are still willing to pay twice the price for herbs than they are for minerals. Stupid people. 

Tecton

Khaibit said:

Will you please do something to sort out the balance between alchemical extracting and harvesting? With alchemical primes, with the artifact and trait, the highest I can get is 5 of a prime. With harvesting I can get 15, 20, 25, depending on when it was last harvested and I only have the artifact for that not the trait. 
And then with harvesting, that's it, you're done. But with alchemy you have to then go stand in a single room for a long time turning some of those primes into metals and then combine those primes and metals to make a cure. 
It's time consuming, it takes far longer to make minerals than it does to harvest. 

The excuse I hear most is 'well, you only have to go to one place to get primes' but that's not really a bonus. Especially when you hit that place just after another alchemist and can only get 1 prime.

Also, can we make more than 2 metals out of a prime? It's just.. so time consuming to make fricking minerals. I didn't realise how vastly different it was till I had both.. and.. just.. ugh. 

And after all that.. people are still willing to pay twice the price for herbs than they are for minerals. Stupid people. 

We've got some plans to make extracting less tedious on the books already, as for the other stuff, sounds like an IDEA *hint hint*

Ismay

So much this. Synthesis is practically screaming for more balance. I can't understand why the skill was designed like that to begin with, when harvesting requires such a small amount of time in comparison. I've sat in a laboratory for days without being able to do anything else in game just to complete mineral orders. This should not be a thing at all.

Xaden

Ah, but once you make synthesis easy, or less time consuming, that's when the market will well and truly go to the dogs.

Kiet

Harvesting has to deal with actual scarcity and knowing locations, tbf.

Khaibit

Kiet said:

Harvesting has to deal with actual scarcity and knowing locations, tbf.

Syntax:            HARVEST BAYBERRY

Works on/against:  Room

Cooldown:          2.00 seconds of balance

Details:

Growing in places such as the Dakhota and Shamtota hills, the bayberry bush has valuable bark which 

when eaten will cause blindness.

--------------------------------------

when it tells you where to pick it... not really

Kayeil

That's only a fraction though. I think of tons of places to harvest moss that not everyone will know how to get to.

On the other hand, ginseng is always annoying to get because it's always over harvested.

There are just some things that would likely be easier to source from someone who sells minerals than someone who sells plants. Like I get all my tun fills from a mineral user instead of a plant harvester.

Sherazad

I thought @Kiet meant more like the difference between the ease of making potash and difficulty of finding moss, the latter being more limited due to the nature of plants.